Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Singing Fish

By Dan Friedman March 24, 2011

Success has many parents and, it appears, a number of vigorous children. The Maccabeats YouTube success at Hanukkah has spawned a whole cottage industry of Jewish videos.

The latest of them is the offspring of Dreamworks (not officially) and Chabad (not officially) and is not, thankfully, an exposition of a minor festival but a celebration of the spiciness of sephardi culture.

Starring Matisyahu’s son as a small boy in a shopping cart, directed by Larry Guterman of “Antz” and written by Chaim Marcus of Chabad’s “To Life” telethon, Ya’alili by 8th Day (as in “On the seventh day Hashem rested and on the eighth day He created music videos”) is a bi-cultural romp through a supermarket whose gender balance reflects no actual store in existence.

But, despite that unpromising premise, it’s a lot of fun, with high production values, charif, gefilte and singing fish, body popping, ouds aplenty and enough Yiddish, Hebrew and Yeshivish to keep Philologos happy for weeks.

Dan Friedman is the former executive editor and whisky correspondent of the Forward, and is the author of a book about Tears for Fears, the ’80s emo rock band.

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